Facebook please stop eating the battery on my Razr.

I would like to throw this info out there to everyone. Facebook is probably one of the most widely used and common app on most phones today. It also happens to be one of the biggest battery hogs out there if not set up properly. Here is a little info that may help some ppl out if setting it up properly isn't something you have been informed on yet.

1. If you go into your FB app hit the menu key on your phone and go to settings. Look and see what your refresh interval is set to. You have the option of setting it to 30 mins-4 hours or never. I have mine set too never because I allow my Fb notifications to be sent directly to my phone through text messages. You can easily set that up online in your Fb acct under account settings. That was how it use to be in the old days, remember? If my phone never searching to see if there's any new notifications my phone isn't using battery. That's just my preference won't be for most so might I suggest using a refresh interval of 2-4 hours. If I remember correctly and if you didn't know these options exist, by default it is set to refresh every 30 mins of installing the app....(Ouch!) Battery! Battery! Battery!

2. Check your Messenger Location services. I believe it also is turned on by default when installed. In my case turned OFF! I keep my gps toggled on at all times. It is not a battery killer like most think. Gps will only turn on if an application uses. So if I go to check in somewhere on Fb the gps signal will kick in...Boom here's where I am at. Once it's done, gps turns back off. Also I find that just keeping the services turned off in my location setting, google,verizon...etc and just leaving gps toggled on is a definite battery saver with my Maxx on Ics. Just put a shortcut on one of your homepages for location services and toggle when needed. If your phone is searching constantly then your battery performance is going to suffer.

3. Notification settings. Guess where mine is set to? You got it...OFF! That is where my text message notifications kick in. This is why I have my refresh interval set to never as explained above. I don't need my phone to search and refresh to look for notifications and use battery cause my notification go to my text messaging.

For some people, the everything completely off scenario will sound stupid. Most will say, why would I want to turn everything off? it defies the purpose of my smart phones capabilities. This is true. If you don't want to use this method, I suggest a refresh interval more than an hour and gps toggled on with all location services turned off....your battery will high-5 you and greatly appreciate it. We all have to hit the Fb button to open it up and see what's happening and for most of us that's CONSTANT! No need it making it search all the time if we open it up constantly to begin with. You only need gps to check you in somewhere, and if notifications are important to you by all means set up the text messaging service. If my updates come through my phone by text messages it pops up on my screen and I can look at it and turn my phone right back off. I didn't have to unlock the phone...hit the facebook app...etc etc to see what was going on.

This is the least consuming battery method I can find with using the facebook app. It works very well for me. I would love to hear if anyone has any better suggestions and weigh in on this topic. We all want good battery times and this is a win win situation for me and I am a heavy user on my phone and I see a lot of people complain about it draining their battery. Most people don't understand why either without the proper set up and knowledge. They just install the app and FB away. Hope this helps some of you out so you can get maximum battery and performance from your phone.

I've tried friendcaster but that was back in it's early stages and still had some bugs to work out, so it was short lived for me but I will definitely try it out seeing how it's an app I forgot about and haven't used in a while.

Another vote for Friendcaster! I HATE the FB app I was not happy when ICS took the option away to uninstall it. I then disabled it. Friendcaster is so easy on the battery and its fast and has more options. I do use it for notifications but its push which seems to help.

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